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A Peak into The EPCM Presbytery Licensing Trials

A Peak into The EPCM Presbytery Licensing TrialsHeld at
Thuchira Tourist Lodge at Mulanje Mountain by Phalombe13-25 April
2017

“Bam,
bam! bam, bam!!” It was 5.20 am and still dark. I was already awake, but who could
it be this early in the morning? My heart skipped a beat as my mind raced back
to that night in December 2012 when three men smashed the door and charged in
with machetes. “Who’s that?” I enquired. “Wata!” came the reply. I did not
recognize the voice, but at least it did not say “Police! Open up!”

I
opened the door. It was the water lady.
She had a broad smile as she lowered the tub of hot water which she was
balancing on her head! “Wata!” she said. “Oh, I do not need the water,” I
protested. She nodded but proceeded to carry the tub into the attached
bathroom, leaving a trail of muddy footprints all the way.

And
this she did every day without fail in the two weeks or so that we stayed in
the lodge in this picturesque locale. We even tried telling the manager that we
did not need the water. But the next morning, at exactly the same time, she
would be at the door again!

After a while, we
gave up trying to change her mind, but simply worked our morning schedule
around hers. There was nothing very wrong about her desire to serve or the way
she served. We were just not used to it. We needed to adapt. It was something
we needed to learn to do quickly.

The
Plan

It was the first day of the Presbytery Trials
for the ministerial students of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Malawi
and Mozambique. The previous day, we had gone from the airport to the money
exchanger, to the Bible Society to put a cash order for 500 Bibles with funds
from EPCA and PCC. Then in the three hours or so ride in the little truck to
the Mulanje, we had cobbled up a rough plan for the trials. We had 14 students,
but only 11 days if we exclude the Sabbaths. We decided to examine the students
in six areas:

·Locus #1: Christian
Character & Call

·Locus #2: Confessional
Theology & Practice

·Locus #3: Bible knowledge

·Locus #4: Hermeneutics
(Handling of the Bible)

·Locus #5: Church History
& Knowledge of Contemporaneous Church Scene.

·Locus #6: Trial Sermon

An
hour would be allocated for each student in each locus, and then the Presbytery
would take 15 minutes to deliberate and vote on whether the student passed the
locus. Although we were technically commissioners, the situation on hand
demanded that Pastor Chris Connors served as the Moderator, while I served as
the clerk. Pastor Rex and Pastor Precious would serve as interpreters.

Apart
from that, the students were to organize themselves to lead devotions every
morning and before lunch at the time appointed.

The
Presbytery

The
presbytery was convened with prayer and a brief exhortation from the
Scriptures. A roll-call or what should be a roll-call was taken. The six
presbyteries were all represented by pastors: Pastors Rex Chitekwe and Precious
Kanyowa would represent Luchenza and Shire Valley, Pastor Royd Waya would
represent Phalombe and Zomba, and Pastor George Banda would represent Liwonde
and Milange (Mozambique). Pastor Jack Mpakera of Liwonde could not come as he
could not get anyone to help with his harvest.

“Where
are the ruling elders?” This was the first question which Pastor Connors and I
posed to the men when they were seated. “They were not invited! We had no
budget for them,” came the reply. There must have been a miscommunication
somewhere. But never mind, we adapt! It was a learning experience for every one
of us. What is a presbytery without ruling elders? The Lord teaches us in
different ways. Pastor Connors and I emptied our pockets and figured that with
some withdrawals from a Credit Card we could cover the shortfall.

A few phone calls and an hour later, the
first of the elders, Elder Godfrey Makhumula from Phalombe arrived and joined
the Presbytery as we began to examine our first student Silas Sidrek on Confessional
Theology. Then as the day dawned, Elder Allan Kalepa from Luchenza arrived.
Elder Edward Alberto from Shire Valley and Elder Luciano Estavao from
Mozambique would arrive early next morning. Though these elders were lacking in
instruction themselves, they are faithful men who loves the Lord, and have a
keen desire to do what is right. With help of the Westminster Shorter Catechism
and a Catechism booklet published by GDS that had been translated into
Chichewa, they were able to participate meaningfully as examiners while having
a course in theology and hermeneutics themselves in the process!

The
Process

The
students were scheduled to be examined by drawing lots. They were examined in
the first five loci one after another, and then scheduled to preach their trial
sermon the next evening. In each session, the presbyters would take turns to
query the candidate.

“Do
you consider yourself a true Christian”; “Tell us about your conversion”; “Name
three changes that resulted from your conversion”; “Do you conduct family
worship”; “Will you be willing to relocate to a remote village if you are
called to serve there”… These are some questions that were posed under the
first locus.

“List
the Ten Commandments”; “Recite the Apostles’ Creed”; “List the Five Points of
Calvinism and provide a proof-text for each point”; “List the five solas of the
Reformation”; “Shorter Catechism, Question 33, What is Justification?”;
“Question 85, What does God require of us, that we may escape His wrath and
curse due to us for sin?”; “In simple terms, what is the difference between
justification and sanctification?”; “Which comes first, regeneration or
faith?”; “What is the principle of worship adopted by the EPC, and which
Catechism questions deal with it?” These are some of the questions asked in the
second locus.

In
the third locus, time is divided between questions related to the Old Testament
and those related to the New Testament. “Where is the first gospel promise
stated?”; “Where is the prophecy of the substitutionary atone of Christ
taught?”; “Who were the kings at the time when the Kingdom of Israel was
divided?” “Which king did the Lord Jesus Christ descend from?” These were some
of the questions asked under the Old Testament segment. “Identify the chapter
in which the Lord Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd”; “Where is the
doctrine of the resurrection of Christ and of His Church taught?”; “Where do we
find the doctrine of the armour of God?”; “Where do we find instructions for
husbands and wives?” These and many others were asked in the New Testament
segment.

As
for the fourth locus, since Pastor Connors was the main instructor for
hermeneutics, he starts off every session with questions designed to see if the
students remembers and understand the theory: “What are the three-fold
principle of Reformed hermeneutics?” The answer expected is, “Grammatical,
Historical, Spiritual or Theological approach.” “What is the difference between
types, symbols and figures of speech?” Most of the students were able to do fairly
well here. With this out of the way, the presbyters took turns to query the
students on specific verses in the Scripture to see if they are able to apply
their knowledge competently.

I
found the fifth locus to be most amusing. The ruling elders of the EPCM are
quite concerned that the candidates are familiar with the history of the EPCM,
and so they would often ask questions related to the founding of the
denomination and the training that took place. “When and where did the first
training seminar take place, who were the teachers?”; “Who accompanied pastor
Connors and who helped fix the pastors’ motorbike?”; “Who accompanied pastor
JJ?” In this way, elder Phil Connors, brother Jonathan Burley and elder Arthur
Koh found their way into the presbytery trials. Pastor Connors and I tried to
see how much Church history the students knew, and very quickly discovered that
they knew only as much as could be found in the introductory material of a
course of Calvinism that we taught and in the supplementary pages of the
Catechism for Young Children printed by the GDS! It became clear to us that
there is a crying need for catechetical material on church history and
contemporary church scene.

The
Deliberations

At the end of each session, the student is
dismissed temporarily while the presbyters share their opinion of how the
student did in the locus because motion to vote whether to pass or fail, or
pass with qualification is put up. It is interesting to see how the EPCM elders
become more stringent and constructive in their opinions with each passing
session as they become more accustomed to what they should expect from the
students. It is interesting also to see the EPCM pastors rising to the occasion
to raise motions for particular students when the moderator did not feel he
could recommend any motion. While the EPCM presbyters gave due considerations
to the comments made by the commissioners, it is clear that they were able to
make up their minds independently when they finally voted.

The
decision on whether a student passed and might be licensed to preach and given
a certificate of eligibility for call was made on the last day after every
student had been examined in all 6 loci including their trial sermon.

In
the end, of the 14 students, we were able to pass four: (1) Samuel Kepesi of
Seti De Abril, Milange; (2) Philip Mukakama of Safai, Luchenza; and (3) Patrick
Selenje of Khanyepa, Luchenza; and (4) Patrick Chome of Katundu, Luchenza. Of
these, the first three were eligible for a call while the last had to meet a
requirement related to preaching before being eligible for a call. Seven[1]
were given provisional passes which required them to take re-examinations on 23
September 2017. Sadly, we had to fail three of the men[2].
These were faithful men who love the Lord, but were simply unable to meet the
basic requirements set by the Presbytery for them to serve as ministers of the
gospel. They were encouraged instead to serve as ruling elders in the church.

Conclusion

The EPCM has come a long way. It began in
2004 with seven ministers[3]
from various denominations who had grown weary of the apostasy of their
denominations and the neglect of the poor in rural Malawi. Their cogitations and prayers eventually led
to the first visit by the EPCA in August 2011. It was then, in the five days
seminar from 12-16 August 2011, in which PCC participated, that the Westminster
Shorter Catechism was introduced to the church through the three hundred or so delegates.
Since then the EPCA and PCC has been taking turns to conduct training classes
for the ministerial students identified by the various presbyteries.[4]
Much has happened in these 6 years. Some students were found to be unsuitable
for the ministry either due to their disposition or their lack of academic
ability. These were asked to drop out of the training. A few had to drop out
due to family issues or cheating at examinations, while one by the name of
Jonathan Issa, a very promising student, was taken to glory while on the way to
share what he learned with a remote village across the Lake Chiuta. Then there
was the flood in 2014 followed by the failed harvests of 2015 and 2016. We
thank God that through all these the Lord sustained His Church and continued to
prepare the students for the ministry, and the church has continued to grow
with hundreds being converted or added to the church almost every month. With
the four men now licensed, the ministerial ranks of the EPCM would be almost
double, and if the seven are eventually licensed, it would increase threefold!
But with more than 25,000 members scattered in 90 congregations spread across
Southern Malawi and Mozambique, it is clear there would still not be enough
ministers! “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few:

8

pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,
that he would send forth labourers into his harvest” (Lk 10:2).

In
the meantime, the churches are growing, and the poor are crying out for more Bibles,
Catechism materials and Psalters, even as they battle to provide food for the
table due to a deficient harvest despite the return of the rains and brotherly
helps from concerned churches overseas.

Oh
may Jehovah Jireh, the Lord of the Harvest provide!

—JJ
Lim

One
of the perks of this very busy trip was the opportunity to spend time with the
Lord alone in the midst of the beauty of His Creation by the river. I did not
realise how dangerous those early morning trips were until I slipped and fell
twice. I thank God for His preservation, but I was reminded of this poem quoted
from memory by Dr William Hendriksen in one of his talks:

The
Stairs

By
Theodosia Pickering Garrison

Oh long and dark the
stairs I trod,
with stumbling feet to find my God,
Gaining a foothold bit by bit
Then slipping back and losing it.

There came a certain
time when I
Loosened my hold and fell thereby,
Down to the lowest step my fall
As if I had not climbed at all.

And as I lay
despairing there,
there came a footfall on the stairs
And 'lo' when hope had ceased to be
My God came down the stairs to me.